Helicopter



W. HAUPT.

HELICOPTER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23,- 1920.

Patented May 2, 1922.

45 *P/P 16' 2 17 L 18 33M; Gl tch 140% W. HAUPT.

HELICOPTER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23,1920.

' Patented May 2, 1922.

UNITED STATES" PATENT oFFics.

1,414,410. Patented May'2, 1922.

. Application filed March 23, 1920. Serial No. 368,204.

Specification of Letters Patent.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, \Vi-nvzru. HAUPT, a citizen of the United States,and resident of New York, in the" county of New York and State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Helicopters,of which the following is a specification.

This invention generally relates to propellers and in particular to thekind used for liftin and known as helicopters.

The primary object of my invention is to provide a device for liftingaircraft from the ground in a substantially vertical direction.

Another object of my invention is to construct such device in a manneras to impart thereto not only a high grade of lifting power but also thecapacity of carrying properties'. l i In order to explain the principleof its construction it is necessary to elucidate the successive stepstaken in the developing of 5 my device.

The principle of a propeller is well known.

When developing a plane into a propeller,

the operation of which is based upon the principle of a pair ofrevolving blades of equal pitch. it will be 'found that the effectivearea'of the propeller lies at or near its longitudinal centerline. Thelifting or pro-' pelling power depends upon the pitch of the' blades.

The blade areas atboth sides of the longitudinal center portion are noteffective to the'same degree, as to their lifting or propollingcapacity. as the central area, since they are not within the radius ofthe pro-v peller. In order to make effective all or nearly all parts ofthe propeller it is necessary to create a plurality of radial units,each with an effective center area as largeas possible. .Therefore Idivide the originl propeller planes in a multitude of individual doublebladed propellers, the center line of each blade being disposed radiallyfrom the propeller center common to all divided propellers.

The operation of each revolving propeller in conjunction with theatmosphere is similar to that of a screw thread. .Upon the grade ofincline or the pitch of the blade and upon the speed. with which apropeller rotates depends the speed of travel of the propeller. I

If the pitch is small at a given number of revolutions the propellerwill move forward slower than if the pitch is greater.

A propeller of small pitch, will have the tendency of carrying similarto a circular stationary plane or a revolving fiat-bladed propeller.

In order to achieve the desired combined results of carrying andpropelling, I provide the individual blade propellers with a shearingcurve which gradually engages the atmosphere, and secondin supplyingsurplus air from one propeller to the other. Thefirst object aids inovercoming the air resistance, the second greatly. increases the liftingor propelling power of my device,

as the air deflected from the propell'er first engaging the "air isthrown in the path of the next following propeller. The deflected air,otherwise lost, is partially compressed andacts as an additional aircushion in conjunction with the lower air-layer engaged by the secondpropeller.

With the varying pitches of the individual propellers their widths varyaccordingly,-

andwith'their width the effective propelling area changes in proportion.

In direct relation with the effective lifting or propelling area is thecarrying power of the propellers.

The smaller the effective propelling area is, the larger becomes thecarrying capacity of the blades. Thus the blades of smallest pitch andconsequently of smallest width have the smallest propelling area but thelargest carrying capacity. The greater the pitch of the propeller bladesthe wider they become, and the greater is their propelling area whilethe carrying capacity diminishes in proportion. i

- a sector of 90?, thus leavin parts.

The best results may be obtained when the propellers are evenlydistributed within a free space of 90 between the front of t e topropeller and the rear of the bottom prope ler.

Another important feature of my device is the gradually increasingpitches of the blades varying in degrees by arithmetical progression,for instance starting with 9 degrees and terminating at 45 degrees.v Thearrangement of the propellers'is of course not limited to any particularnumber and similarly the pitch variation may start at any desired de reeIt may seem that a similar result m ght be obtained by connectin thepropellers to two symmetrical, parabo icallycurved lanes or byoverlapping the propellers. uch contention is erro-' 'neous, andexperiments have proved that it is absolutely necessary to provideindividual and distinctly separated propellers inorder toachieve thebest of operating conditions in my device.

The foregoing explanation involving some of the objects of my inventionwill be more clearly understood from the accompanying drawings, formingpart of this specification, in which:

Figure 1 is a pair of diagrammatical views of a plane.

Figure 2 is a pair of diagrammatical views illustrating the peller.

Figure 3 is a die rammatical view of one propeller blade ivided in fiveequal process of forming a pro- Figure 4 represents the parts separated,the blade center lines lndlcating efiectlve lifting areas at differentpitches.

Figure 5 is a diagrammatical view illus-' trating the arrangement ofblades in my helicopter. l

Figure 6 is a diagrammatical view of blades illustrating the wayair isdeflected from one propeller into the path of the next following.

Figure 7 is a top view of a preferred. form of my device. v

Figure 8 is a top view otasingle propeller.' p

Figure 3 is a sectional v1ew therethrough taken on line 99 of Figure 8.

- propeller.

Figure 10 is, a sectional view taken on line 1010 of Figur 8.

Figure 11 is a si e elevation'of a'single Figures 12,13, 14, 15 and 16are diagrammatical views showing .various pitches of five propellerblades.

Figure 17 is a side elevation of on device. Figure 18 is'a bottom viewthereo v 7 -Figure. 19 is a typical enlarged section throu h a"propeller blade.

Re erri to the drawings, the successive steps deve oping my helicoptermay be readily followed. The plane 10' (Fig. 1 is divided at itstransversal center! line v11 ,(Fig. 2), into two symmetrical wings- 12and 13, inclined at a certain angle or pitch, While the longitudinalcenter line 14 remains unchanged. Thus a double-bladed propeller iscreated.

lit is obvious that in a comparatively wide propeller only a small stripin .near proximit to the longitudinal center line of each bla e isradial, while the blades edges are off center. The effective area of apropeller blade is at its longitudinal center line, and theinefi'ectivenes of a propeller blade due to this cause increases withits width.

Consequentl I endeavor to create a larger number of efllictive areaswhile decreasing the less effective areas of a. propeller.

This I accomplish by dividing the original large propeller in the wayindicated in Figure 3, representing the propeller blade '12, and finallyseparate it into independent units seen in Figure 4. b

By altering the pitch of each unit, placing the, units on top of eachother starting with the unit of largest pitch atlthe bottom. anddistributing the units radially at equal angles within a given sectorthe blades will form a parabolic curve (Fig. 5).

Since the lifting and carrying powers depend upon the pitch of theblades it is obvious that the blades of greater pitch will have morelifting capacity andless carrying power, while the blades of smallerpitch will act as carriers due to their reduced propelling power.

Thus the blades 15 and 16 (Fig. 5 will i carry and blades 17 18 and 19will lift.

The lifting capacity of the thus con structed helicopter is greatlyincreased by deflection of air from one propeller to, or

in the path of the next following propeller when the device is inmotion. See Figure 6.

The'rotating blade 15 strikes the air ind'iblade 16 Strikes and uponwhich it, so to speak, glides upward.

The same recess is repeated in the to lowing prope ler blades.

It will be'observed that the blades receive a convex-concave shape,which increases their efiiciency still more.

In Figure 7 maybe seen the radial arran ment of-five pro 11ers evenlydistribute within aseetor o 90. Thus the anguto one.

lar distance from the longitudinal center line of one propeller to theother is 22% deees.

The propellers are arranged above each other and have a common axis.Tangentially from the hub-like center 23 and parallel to thelongitudinal center line, run the back edges 24 of the blades (seeFigures 8, 9, 10 and 11), while their front edges 25 are broken at 26and continue fill-27 radially toward the hub center. The portionsbetween the hub and the parallel blade portions thus represent theoriginal shapes from which the propellers are made, the dotted. lines29, 30, 31, 32 and 33 correspond to the various pitch angles of 9,18,27, 36 and 45 degrees respectively, and the curves represent theinnersurfaces of the blades.

While specific angles are mentioned it is obvious that they may bechanged to suit different conditions.

Also the number of propellers may be changed. For certain purposes threeand even two propellers might suflice, while on the other hand a muchlarger number than five will be necessary to suit other conditions.

The propellers as shown in Figures 7, 17 and 18, are grouped in theaforementioned relation one'on top of the other and their proportion oflength and width is twenty Experiments have demonstrated this relationof dimensions to be preferable to any other. I reserve for myself theright however to make alterations to meet various requirements.

Obviously may be changed from that shown, especially as-to its straightends, which may be round ed or receive other forms, also the curvatureof blade proper may vary.

Generally I reserve for myself the right to change, and, differentlyconstruct and mprove-upon my invention, for which I claim: 1. In apropeller, the combmation of five parabolically arranged blade umtsplaced on top of and connected with each other and having a commoncentral axis, each unit comprising. a pair of symmetrical blades ofequal pitch, said units being disposed at an angular distance of 22%degrees from each other, thus providing two free angular distances of 90degrees between the top and bottom units, the pitch of theseblade unitsvarying by arithmetical progression from the first term of 9 degrees tothe last term of 45 degrees, said blades. being so dis osed that theupper or cutting edge of one lade also the shape of the blades lies inthe same plane with the lower or delivery edge of the adjacent blade.

2. In a propeller, the combination of a plurality of parabolicallyarranged blade units placedon top of each other and having a commoncentral axis, each unit comprising a pair of symmetrical blades of equalpitch, said units being disposed inrelation to'each other 'at equalangular distances within an angle of 90 degrees, thus providing two freeangular distances of 90 degrees between the top and bottom units, thepitch of these blade units differing by arithmetical progression from agiven angular first term to a given angular last term, said blades beingso disposed that the upper or cutting edge of one blade lies in the sameplane with the lower or delivery edge of,

the adjacent blade.

3. In a propeller, the combination of aplurality of parabolicallyarranged symmetrical blade units of differing pitch placed on top of andconnected with each other and having a common central axis, said unitsbeing disposed in relation to each other at equal angular distancesleaving free spaces between each group of blades, the pitch of the unitsgradually increasing from top to bottom, said blades being so disposedthat the, upper .or cutting edge of one blade lies in the same planewith the lower or delivery edge of the adjacent blade.

4:. In a propeller, the combination of a plurality of parabolicallyarranged symmetrical blades of gradually decreasing pitch grouped andconnected with each other at equal angles and having a common centralaxis, said blades being so disposed that the upper or cutting edge ofone blade lies in the same plane with the lower or delivery edge of theadjacent blade. 5. A helicopter comprising a plurality of individualpropeller blades mounted; one

above the other, grouped in a parabolic curve in a sector of degrees,thus providing a pair of free opposite disposed sectors of 90 degreesbetween the blade sectors, said propellers being of various pitches, theuppermost propeller havingv the smallest pitch,

the lower-most propeller being of largest pitch, the propellers beinggrouped so that their center lines lie in a parabolical are, said bladesbeing'so disposed that the upper or cutting edge of one blade lies inthe same plane with the lower or delivery edge of the adjacent blade. 4

7. A helicopter comprising a plurality of individual radially disposedbladed propellers, the blades arranged above and at equal angles to eachother, and comprising blade groups, said blade groups forming bladegroup sectors, so disposed as to leave between them free sectors, thepropeller blades having various pitches, and arranged to form twosymmetrical parabolic arcs, said blades 'in said blade groups being sodisposed that 7 ing said wings with' the hub, and having .parabolicallygrouped their front edges disposed radially from the center axis of thehub, the blades of said propellers being so disposed that the upper or,cutting edge of one blade lies in the same plane with the lower ordelivery edge of the adjacent blade.

9. A helicopter comprising a plurality of pitch. arranged radia y andabove each other, the upper propeller of lesser pitch adapted to serveas carriers, the lower propellers of greater pitch serving as lifters,said propel ersbeing so disposed'that their upper and lower edges of twoadjacent propellers lie in the same'plane.

10. A helicopter comprising'in' combination a plurality of lifting andcarrying propellers arranged in parabolic curves, the former having agreater pitch than the latter so that the upper edge of one propellerlie 1propellers of various in the same plane with the lower edge of the7 ing and carrying propellers, said propellers being so disposed thatthe upper edge of one propeller lies in the same plane with the loweredge of the adjacent propeller, each propeller adapted to individuallyengage the atmosphere and transmit the engaged ate mosphere toward andin the path of the next following propeller.

13- A helicopter comprising a plurality of parabolically groupedindividual radially disposed propellers of different pitches, saidpropellers being so disposed that the upper edge of one propeller liesin the same plane withthe lower edge of the adjacent propeller, eachpropeller adapted to individually engage the atmosphere when thehelicopter is revolved. v

l4. A helicopter comprising a plurality of parabolically groupedradially disposed propellers the length and width of which areproportioned twenty to one, the upper and lower edges of two adjacentpropellers lying in one plane.

15. A helicopter comprising a plurality of parabolically groupedpropellers having convex-concave propeller blades arranged in aparabolic curve. and adapted to transmit air from one blade to theother, the u per and lower edges of two-adjacent prope lers lying-in oneplane.

Signed at New York cit in the county of New York, and State of ew York,this 22d day of March, A. D. 1920.

' WENZEL- HAUPT.

